Related Content

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s study abroad program sends students to more than 40 countries, including France.

As of Friday night, officials there had been in contact with two of their four students in Paris.

The school's director of study abroad, Mark Eckman, said the ones they've spoken with appreciated him reaching out to check on their safety. Eckman added that they're hoping to hear from the other two overnight.

“For our students in particular, we want to make sure they weren't directly involved, that they weren't present for anything or weren't victim of any of the attacks. We also want to make sure they feel comfortable there in Paris, studying and continuing on in their program,” Eckman said.

A woman from Greenfield is also safe. Chelsea Brannon now lives in France.

It was around 1:30 a.m. in France when WISN 12 News’ Patrick Paolantonio talked with Brannon.

She lives on the outskirts of Paris and had plans to go into the city earlier in the evening.

“We were eating dinner, planning on getting ready to go out, then all of a sudden my friend looked at her phone, and she's like, 'Um, we should check this out because they are, there's something that happened, shootings or bombings in Paris,’” Brannon said.

Brannon has lived in France, on and off, for about five years.

She's been watching the news and keeping an eye on social media, waiting for people she knows to check in.

“We have plenty of friends that live in the area, and where the attacks happened, I worked. I work not far from there. And you know we have friends that own bars in the area, so we're just concerned for them, to make sure that they're OK,” Brannon said.

Facebook activated its safety check feature, following the attacks.

It allows people in the affected area to let their Facebook friends know that they're safe.

This is the first time the feature has been used in a non-natural disaster setting since it was launched last year.